I think a biopic of Pocahontas is way overdue (I’m not counting the Disney film). There is a film about Jamestown coming out this summer but it basically looks like the same tired “John Smith is saved by a savage princess” stuff, and probably won’t go into her father (a fascinating if exceptionally strange leader) or her journey to London (which was one of the great culture shocks). I’m curious to see how they portray her marriage to John Rolfe (I could see it done as true love or rape or Stockholm syndrome or anywhere in between).
A biopic of F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald is long overdue as well.
A miniseries based on the life of Brigham Young would also be fascinating (and may atone for the Dean Jagger movie of the 1940s).
Vlad the Impaler was probably done as well as can be expected in USA’s DARK PRINCE, but AFAIK no authentic version of Elizabeth Bathory has been done (COUNTESS DRACULA certainly doesn’t count!)
No reputable company would touch a Gilles deRais project! :eek:
Bathoy and Gilles de Rais came to my mind too – especially the latter, the original Bluebeard. (He murdered (after sodomy) local peasant boys, not his wives; but he did dye his beard blue – and he fought alongside Joan of Arc!) Why not? There’s been a John Wayne Gacy movie (direct to DVD, I believe), and Law and Order: SVU deals with stories of pedophilia and sex murder every third episode or so.
When I heard that a movie called Constantine was coming out, I assumed (not being familiar with the comic book) that it was a biopic of the Emperor Constantine. No such luck. Now there’s a story that needs to be told. Just so long as you don’t let Mel Gibson anywhere near it. Nor the guys who did the Left Behind movies. In fact, this should definitely be a no-Christians-involved project.
I’d also like to see a biopic of some great American socialists (not Communists) – say, Eugene Debs, or Norman Thomas.
BTW, there’s a great account of Gilles de Rais as a sucker, in L. Sprague de Camps’s Spirits, Stars and Spells: The Profits and Perils of Magic. After de Rais exhausted most of his vast inheritance on his . . . errmm . . . excessive lifestyle, a purported sorceror duped him out of some of what was left, by pretending to be able to arrange a deal with a demon. In one episode, the demon demanded an offering of the heart and entrails of a peasant boy. “De Rais scrupulously kept his side of the bargain, but when he went to dig up the promised hoard of gold, the deceitful demon had changed it to tinsel.”
How about a movie on the biblical Paul, and how he took a backwater religion, seriously morphed it, and turned into a dominant force in Western thought. Again, this would have to be a no Christian movie. I think it might help people to understand where their religion comes from.
60 years ago, the conventional wisdom in the medical community was that anyone with a concussion must be kept alert or they’ll slip into a coma. An example of this is the episode of “MAS*H” where Hawkeye babbles to a family of locals after his jeep flips over.
Sampiro, you know that you’re going to have to write the story of Eve Gordon yourself if you want it to become known. It’s not like the other stories that people have mentioned in this thread. You’re one of the few people who know about Eve Gordon’s life. You’re going to have to do the research to verify large parts of her story. Unless you can persuade some other writer to take on the job, you’re going to have to write the book or the script about her yourself.
Incidentally, since I’ve now encouraged you to do this, I get associate producer credit on the film and a cut of the gross.
In 1994 a disgruntled Fed Ex employee decided to crash one of the company’s DC-10 cargo planes into its Memphis headquarters. He planned the hijacking to the last detail, got weapons on the plane, and seriously wounded the pilot, co-pilot, and engineer.
As you probably realize, he didn’t succeed, thanks to the incredible bravery of the three crewmen. But he* would have*, if the plane’s previous flight hadn’t been delayed by one minute. The delay meant that the original crew, on which he was engineer, and which included a woman, went into overtime. He chose to try and overpower the replacement crew, who were able, just barely, to fight him off and land the plane safely, despite being seriously injured.
If he had succeeded, it would probably have been the most destructive attack in the U.S. until 9/11.
The story was told in the book Hijacked by Dave Hirschman, and I suspect the main reason it hasn’t been filmed is that the disgruntled employee was black, and felt he had been discriminated against because of his race.
I’ve always thought the story of the Pacific Clipper would make an excellent movie. The Pacific Clipper was a Pan Am flying boat that was airborne en route to New Zealand at the moment the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Upon his arrival in Auckland, the pilot was told by the company he was free to use any means at his disposal to get himself and his crew home. Unable to fly back across the Pacific, they began an amazing month-long journey flying west, around the world, with no navigational aids or support. It was the first circumnavigation of the world by an aircraft flying a route close to the equator and the first for a commercial aircraft.
While following her story, I thought the SDMB’s very own Kaitlyn should have a movie based on her experiences.
So many great characters…herself, Mrs. Six, the principal, and all the students who cared a lot less than their parents. I would definitely go to see her movie.
The Collyer Brothers, the compulsive hoarders and recluses. Langley died when a stack of newspapers fell on him. His brother Homer was an invalid and died soon after from starvation. It took the police days to find the bodies because of all the junk in the house.
Collyer brothers are an excellent, indie-dark humor film idea.
I would like to see Jacque Sandalescue’s story Donbas made into a movie. It would be dark, punishing, but yet something hopeful.
In the 1980’s, when my father was a police sergeant, he investigated the sexual assault and murder of a 12 year old mentally retarded girl. He immediately suspected the guy who claimed to have discovered the body, which was hidden under some trash in an abandoned building. He was unable to collect enough evidence to bring charges. Because he was convinced the fellow was guilty, though, he kept tabs on him and later arrested him for public drunkenness, indecent exposure, and several other charges stemming from an incident where the fellow exposed himself to some women one night. Through these charges, he took the guy off the street for several months.
Not long after his release, a mentally retarded boy of about the same age was sexually assaulted and drowned. My father went to the chief of police and gave an impassioned plea that his chief suspect be immediately taken into custody. Instead, he was informed that he, himself, was a suspect because he seemed “to know too much!”
After a very loud and tense confrontation, dad’s suspect was brought in. Dad and a Pennsylvania State Police Interrogator handled the case. The suspect confessed to both murders. He is still incarcertated as I write this.
